9-30-22 This Week in Faith
/For Kids in October
Faith Fall Festival is Sunday, October 23 from 5-7PM. This is a great event for your whole family. Come eat, play games, listen to music, win prizes and more. Kids can dress in costumes. And this is a great opportunity to invite another family to church. Think about who you could bring with you that could enjoy the night and get connected to Faith.
Sunday School EVERY Sunday Sundays from 9:45AM-10:45AM [No Sunday school on October 16 due to the Fall Retreat]. There are classes for 5th grade and under. Check in at the desk in the foyer. This month we are studying:
THIS Sunday: Oct. 2- Gideon’s Victory; Oct. 9- God Gives Samson Strength; Oct. 16- Samson Loses His Strength [No SS hour at church but kids who are on the retreat will do this lesson there on Sunday AM]; Oct. 23- Ruth; Oct. 30- God Hears Hannah’s Prayers
Scripture Memory: 1 John 4:14
Catechism: Are there more gods than one? There is only one God.; In how many persons does this one God exist? In three persons.; What are they? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Children’s Church [8:30AM Service] Children’s Church is available during the 8:30AM service. There’s a kids message in both services. 2nd grade and under will be invited to leave for Children’s Church after that in the 8:30AM service.
* We also have a new Children’s Bulletin that is ideal for 3rd-5th graders. It incorporates the worship bulletin but helps kids track through the service, stay engaged, and worship more fully with us. Look for it on the way into the sanctuary with the other bulletins.
For Students in October
Serve and have fun at the Fall Festival. CLICK HERE to sign up to help at the fall festival. Serve for 1 hour and and hang out for the other. Students can sign up with a friend for a station.
Wednesday Nights for Middle School [6-8PM] This week we have a guest speaker, Lauren Walters, who is a student in the Veterinarian school at UGA. We’ll have pizza for $2 or its free if they bring a friend for the first time.
Sunday Nights for High School [6-8PM] This Sunday night we’ll have another night of prayer and praise as we review the last 2 types of Psalms we’ve been studying. We’ll go out to dinner at Barberitos on Epps Bridge after.
Sunday School [9:45AM-10:45AM] Students are serving in a kids Sunday school class, attending the MS class [Understanding the Faith] or attending the HS class [New City Catechism]. No Sunday school on October 16 due to the Fall Retreat
Serve in Children’s Church Serve once a month in Children’s church during the early service. CLICK HERE to sign up to serve.
For Parents in October
Rise and Shine Service Breakfast on October 22. Dads and their kids can join us for a devotion, breakfast, and a chance to serve our community alongside other men from our church [young and old].
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The Gospel Cure for the Common Aches and Pains of Marriage
“Again, this is the natural drift in a relationship. Resisting the drift requires focus and intentionality. But most couples I know have put their marriage on the back burner. The blur of life has left them with no margin to focus on building a stronger marriage. The demands of work, the needs of the kids, and the calendar full of gatherings and get togethers leaves couples with no time or energy to invest in their relationship.
Even those who set aside time for regular marriage maintenance often don’t know how to use that time wisely.”
Marriage is hard. It is an incredible gift that God gives us. But it is also a lot of work. And the tendency to drift apart over time is natural. Like he says in this article, most couples don’t mean to drift apart. They just wake up one morning and realize it has been happening for years. This is why I’m so grateful that gospel empowers us to move towards each other, towards our spouse, with love, patience, forgiveness, and the hope that we can be closer tomorrow than we are today. I admit there are times when I choose to focus on other things in the moment, convinced that I’ll have time to invest in my marriage tomorrow. So this is a much needed reminder that we are either intentionally moving towards our spouse or unintentionally drifting away. I pray that my life [and yours] would be more characterized by the first one and that God’s Spirit would graciously carry me in that direction.
Click here to read the article by Bob Lepine.
Teach Your Children to Resolve Conflict
Conflict between kids in the house is not uncommon. Like he says at the beginning of the article, “When you have 5 people in a house, there are 5 sinners in the house!”. As my kids have gotten older, there are some conflicts that we don’t deal with anymore but other types that have appeared in their place. Working towards peace in your house takes work. And the goal is not ultimately yours or my comfort [unfortunately :)]. The goal is to see the gospel works its way deeper into their hearts, and work its way out through how they treat each other. There are some simple, practical steps in here to help us all work towards peace in our homes.
Click here to read the article by Chris Pennington.
Died: Brother Andrew, Who Smuggled Bibles into Communist Countries
Our family had just read about Brother Andrew on Monday when I saw this week that he had passed away. God gave him the courage and ability to deliver Bibles to people in places in the world where Bibles are illegal. This article gives the details of a remarkable life.
In our Parent Book Club discussion this week, we talked about the importance of helping our kids grow in empathy- compelling them away from our natural bent to see ourselves as the center of the universe. Reading about other people’s stories with our kids gives them the chance to consider what life is like in other people’s shoes. We read about Brother Andrew in the book Everyone a Child Should Know [it's a great book!]. It helped all of our kids from 6-18 think about what it would be like to live in a country where it was illegal to have a Bible. Or to have the courage to risk your life to bring the good news of Jesus to others. I’d encourage you to find ways, whether through books, movies, museums, trips, interviews, or whatever you can use to give your kids a sense of the bigness of God’s world and the broadness of the experiences of his people.
Click here to read the article by Daniel Silliman.
SERMON: Genesis: Two Families
I listened to this sermon last week and while it is not specifically about parenting, he talks a lot about the power of our families to shape generations either towards knowing God or away from him. He talks about how important the job of parent and grandparent is in the hearts and for the future of the young people around you. I was really encouraged by it and I hope you will be too.
Click here to watch or listen to the message from Ray Cortese at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church.
PODCAST: What About Sports? with Steve Stigall
Finding a healthy place for sports in the life of our families can be very challenging sometimes. Our kids learn a lot of valuable things through the experience of playing sports or being involved in other activities. But there is also a danger that these things become so consuming in the life of our family that we lose sight of what’s most important and miss out on our chance to shape our kids around what is most important- a relationship with Jesus and his church. This is an interview that dives into the value and dangers in a helpful way. I don’t necessarily agree with everything they say but its an important conversation as you navigate fitting sports into the rhythm of your family life.
Click here to listen to this episode of the Family Discipleship Podcast. [You can also find them on Spotify]
